The parent lottery

I've not made it a secret that I'm getting into audiobooks. Every Thursday night, on my weekly four-mile walk to Chad's men's softball game with Lucy, I've been listening to a book called "The Last Lecture" by Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch.

As quick background, Pausch, who was a computer science professor at the esteemed university, gave a "last lecture" in September 2007 shortly after finding out that he had pancreatic cancer and about three months to live. (To make matters even more depressing, he was in his 40s and had three small children.)

I had heard about this "last lecture" last fall (see it here) but never got around to watching it. After the speech was given, Pausch was interviewed by Oprah, Diane Sawyer, and was named ABC's Person of the Week. A few months ago, when I heard that Randy Pausch had died, I felt compelled to read his book--or, should I say, listen to it.

The book, and the lecture, is about achieving your childhood dreams. He talks about his goals to defy gravity in a spaceship, play in the NFL, work for Disney...and by the time Randy died earlier this year he had done all of those things.

While talking about his childhood in the book, he said something that I have been thinking about for weeks:

I won the parent lottery. I was born with the winning ticket--a major reason I was able to live out my childhood dreams...

I really do see myself as a guy who got a leg up in life because I had a mother and a father who did so many things right.

It's funny how sometimes you remember the precise details of the moment when you experience something profound. When I heard that last sentence, I remember exactly where we were standing (a stoplight at the corner of Valley and Glebe). It resonated with me more than anything I've heard in ages.

Though the odds were great, I, too, won the "parent lottery." What a perfect way to put it.

There have been many times I've wondered how on earth my parents offered encouragement while keeping us humble, fostered our creativity while maintaining a strict schedule, and prompted us to have our own opinions while teaching us what to believe in. In the last several years, I've hoped that someday I'll have an idea of how to do this parenting thing just as well as they did. (And, if not, well...our kids will spend a lot of summers back in Illinois!)

For the record, I think my husband won the parent lottery, too. While Randy Pausch undoubtedly had wonderful parents, Chad and I have also been surrounded by some of the best.